Nebulae

Revisiting the Bubble Nebula from last year, the area surrounding the Bubble is rich with nebulosity and cluster M52, making it a fine wide-field target. In this case, I decided to shoot narrowband — typically, narrowband star colors are purple or off-color depending on the palette used, and for this particular image, I decided to mix in natural color RGB … Read More

IC443, The Jellyfish Nebula, is a supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini. At roughly 5,000 light years, the Jellyfish sits near the star Tejat Prior (meaning ‘forward foot’), the left foot of the northern twin. (Tejat Prior is, itself, a triple star system, at magnitude ~3.2 — so reasonably easy to spot in most skies.) This image consists of 24 … Read More

The Pelican Nebula is next to the North American nebula (in fact part of it is visible on the left of the image). This is a narrowband image consisting of 16 Ha 1200s, 12 OIII 1200s, and 12 SII 1200s mapped to RGB in a modified Hubble Palette, taken with a Tak FSQ106 and QSI683 camera. The annotated image shows the … Read More

M45 – The Pleiades or Seven Sisters is a favorite of mine. A relatively close star cluster, the dust the cluster is moving through creates a beautiful reflection nebula. This image was created from 30 600s luminance, 30 300s luminance, 30 60s luminance, and color from 20 each of RGB data binned 2×2 with a QSI683 mono camera and TAK FSQ106 … Read More

NGC1499 is a huge nebula resembling the state of California (hence the name). At roughly 2.5 degrees wide, a full moon could fit about 4 times across in this image — quite large indeed! In natural light, the nebula is red, but this image is a narrowband 2 frame mosaic (stitched together). Taken with ta Tak FSQ 106 and QSI683 and … Read More

Sh2 – 155, The Cave Nebula, is a wonderful narrowband target as it includes areas of emission and reflection nebulae. The Ha, OIII, and SII data is mapped to R, G, and B channels to produce the false color image; in natural light, the Cave Nebula would appear red. Captured with a Tak FSQ106, QSI683 and 3nm Astrodon filters. 40x1200sec … Read More

The Crescent Nebula has a number of designations: NGC6888, Caldwell 27, and Sharpless 105. Captured with a Tak FSQ106 and QSI683 camera, with Astrodon 3nm filters. 21 900sec Ha, 10 900sec OIII, and 19 900sec SII. At the center of the Crescent is Wolf-Rayet star 136. NASA’s APOD has this fantastic description: What caused the Crescent Nebula? Looking like an … Read More

The Veil Nebula (Narrowband). The Eastern Veil (top) in its entirety, and about half of the Western Veil on bottom. Captured with a Tak FSQ 106 and QSI683 with Astrodon 3nm filters. 15x900sec Ha, 15x900sec OIII, 10x900sec SII. HubbleSite.org recently published a fascinating article on the Veil, including some great Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. Here’s an excerpt from the … Read More

M78 is a gorgeous reflection nebula near Orion. Barnard’s Loop, towards the right, forms a huge (relatively speaking) emission nebula ring around Orion’s belt and the Orion Nebula. Captured with a QSI683 and Tak FSQ 106, this image contains about 12 ea of RGB at 600s, 6 hours total integration. While the galaxies would be easy to miss unless annotated, … Read More

5,000 light years away, the Rosette Nebula is striking in both narrowband and visible light (where it is primarily red in color). Because of its large size, only small magnification is necessary to capture the nebula and visually, the central cluster is easy to see. The central area houses cluster NGC2244 and NGC2237; the bright cluster of hot, young stars illuminates … Read More

Located near Orion’s belt (specifically, the easternmost star in the belt, Alnitak), the Horsehead Nebula is about 1,500 light years away. While the Horsehead Nebula itself is quite large, the entire region contains many nebulae — the Flame Nebula, the Orion Nebula, Barnard’s Loop, and many others. This image is only Ha (Hydrogen Alpha). 18 15-minute exposures with a QSI683 camera, 11″ Edge SCT with … Read More